


Tonight

by silverstarsandroses



Series: Moonlight [3]
Category: Aladdin (2019)
Genre: F/M, Falling In Love, Forbidden Love, Holding Hands
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-05
Updated: 2019-08-05
Packaged: 2020-07-31 13:36:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20115955
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silverstarsandroses/pseuds/silverstarsandroses
Summary: "'Close your eyes,' Jasmine whispers.Then she gets up on her tiptoes and leans in. She watches as Aladdin’s eyes flutter shut. He’s so handsome, it almost makes her ache to look at him. It almost makes her want to kiss him for real.But tonight is not that night."





	Tonight

Jasmine leans over the railing of her balcony, searching the gardens below for any sign of Aladdin. It’s not eagerness, she tells herself, so much as that he just keeps catching her off guard. She’d like to start one of their nighttime meetings with the upper hand for once.

But tonight is not that night. Because Jasmine hears a thud on the balcony behind her, and she turns to see Aladdin straightening from a crouch.

She demands, “How did you –”

Aladdin points up at the roof that hangs over the balcony. “Figured I’d mix it up. I don’t like to take the same route too many times, or else the guards might catch on.”

Jasmine purses her lips, but it’s hard to pretend to be all that annoyed. After all, she could have told him not to come back, but she’s rather fond of the way he manages to keep her on her toes.

“They haven’t caught on, right?” Aladdin asks, suddenly nervous. He looks behind him into Jasmine’s bedroom, as if guards might be standing there, ready to arrest him. “No one knows I’ve been coming here?”

“No one but Dalia, and she won’t tell,” Jasmine replies. “It’s our secret.”

“Glad to hear it. And speaking of things I could get in trouble for…” He pulls her earring out of his pocket and grins. “You get this back for a kiss, and it can’t be on the cheek or the back of my hand.”

Jasmine smiles back at him, and she likes that it makes him pause for a second. She likes that his eyelids lower and his smile grows just that little bit. She likes that he doesn’t bother to hide how much he likes her. She likes that she likes him back just as much, even if it scares her a little.

Really, when she lets all the context about her royal status fall away, this is almost perfect. Aladdin makes her heart beat too fast and her cheeks get warm, and if she were any other girl in the world, that would be all that matters.

For the length of these visits, she can let that be all that matters.

Jasmine steps in close to him, so that their toes almost touch. She covers his hand holding the earring with hers; his hand is warm, and she wants to hold it forever.

“You wore your hair down,” Aladdin says quietly.

“I did,” she says.

“You look beautiful,” he says. He reaches his free hand up to brush her hair behind her ear, and he lets his fingertips brush from her ear down along her jaw, until his fingertips rest beneath her chin. He lifts her chin ever so slightly and tilts his head down, waiting for the kiss that was promised.

“Close your eyes,” Jasmine whispers.

Then she gets up on her tiptoes and leans in. She watches as Aladdin’s eyes flutter shut. He’s so handsome, it almost makes her ache to look at him. It almost makes her want to kiss him for real.

But tonight is not that night.

Jasmine tilts her face up and presses a kiss to Aladdin’s nose, and she leans away, unable to suppress a laugh. Aladdin looks thoroughly confused and a little mad when he realizes what’s happened, especially when Jasmine plucks the earring from his hand.

“You know,” he says, “If you weren’t so pretty when you laugh, I’d almost be annoyed.”

“And if you were better at specifying what you want,” Jasmine replies, “You’d have had your kiss by now. Now, come on. Since you’re here, I’ve got tea and a million questions about my city. Stay a while longer tonight.”

She grabs Aladdin’s hand and pulls him into her room. He laces his fingers tighter against hers and brushes his thumb across her hand; it sends a shiver up her arm.

As promised, she has a tray with tea sitting on her desk, and she pours for both of them as Aladdin makes himself comfortable. Or, as comfortable as he can be. He looks around uncomfortably and sits on the edge of the sofa, clearly wondering if he maybe shouldn’t be here.

“Like I said,” she reassures him, “Our secret is safe.”

She hands him a cup of tea, and she lets their fingers brush together as she hands it over. Aladdin grabs her hand and holds it for just a second before he lets her go.

“So,” Aladdin says, letting himself settle into the sofa cushions, “You said you have a million questions. What about?”

“Tell me about Agrabah.”

So he tells her. They sit and they talk and they laugh, and he brushes her hair behind her ear every so often, and she lets their fingers brush every time she refills his tea and hands his cup back to him. All the while, she gazes into his eyes and doesn’t bother to hide how quickly she’s falling for him.

Sometimes, if he’s looked away for a moment, he looks back at her and stumbles over his words for a second. It makes Jasmine smile and it makes Aladdin redden, and it makes both of them laugh.

Eventually, when the tea is gone and the moon has traced a long arc across the sky since Aladdin first arrived, they go back to the balcony to say goodbye. Jasmine starts to remove her bracelet, but Aladdin stops her. He holds up a necklace that she wasn’t wearing tonight.

“Swiped it from the table just now,” he says. “Thought you wouldn’t mind.”

“You know,” Jasmine says, “When most men are trying to woo women, they bring them gifts, not steal things from them.”

“Well, I’m not most men,” Aladdin says. “And it sounds like what most men do to woo you doesn’t work.”

“And you think what you’re doing is working, then?” she asks, a challenge clear in her voice. A challenge betrayed by the fact that she’s been openly flirting with him all night.

Aladdin steps in close. He brushes her hair back one last time, and he leans in to whisper in her ear, “If I were trying to woo you, you’d know it.”

He presses a feather-light kiss to her cheekbone before he pulls away. Then he jumps up and grabs onto the edge of the roof, and by the time Aladdin has hoisted himself up and vanished, Jasmine is still busy blushing and trying to tell her knees to function.

The next night, she waits behind a screen, and she lets him be the one to arrive first. She catches him off guard, coming up behind him and pressing a kiss just behind his ear. His hand flies up to where she kissed him, and he turns around with a delightfully confused look on his face.

“Sneaky,” he says, when he realizes what’s happened. He holds out the necklace. “May I?”

Jasmine nods. Aladdin unclasps the necklace and reaches forward, one arm hovering over each of Jasmine’s shoulder as he fastens the necklace. Their faces are close together, and his fingers keep brushing the back of her neck. When the clasp is secure, Aladdin traces his palms around her neck and up to her jaw. Jasmine shivers at the feel of his rough palms on her.

He holds her face, and Jasmine can’t look away from his eyes. They’re warm, with the golden light of her bedroom flickering in them. Looking into his eyes, it’s as if she can feel every inch of his desire and his adoration.

She wants him to love her. She wants him to tell her so.

She wants to love him back forever.

She catches herself just before her lips open to form the words. Instead, she brings a hand up to the back of his, and she lets her eyes say what she can’t say out loud quite yet.

It’s only been four nights. How can she be this in love with him already?

That night, they stay out on the balcony, and Jasmine teaches him how to dance. Some steps are more fast-paced, but some – and Aladdin tells her as she’s teaching him that these are his favorite – are slow and require his hands on her waist. Jasmine hums a tune, and they dance closer and closer to each other. Eventually, her head rests on his shoulder as they sway softly from side to side, Jasmine still humming softly.

She could swear she feels him press a kiss to the top of her head.

When it’s time to leave, Aladdin holds her hand and doesn’t break eye contact as he slowly slips a ring off her finger.

“Until tomorrow,” he says. His eyes flick down to her lips, and she wishes he would.

But he doesn’t, not tonight. And then he’s gone, and Jasmine hums that same tune and sways around her room as she gets ready for bed.

She can’t fall asleep tonight. She can’t stop smiling at the ceiling and savoring the warmth that spreads through her whole body every time she thinks of Aladdin.

She’s in love, she thinks. And from the way he looks at her, the way he touches her, the fact that he keeps coming back…she lets herself hope.

And that’s something she hasn’t done in a long, long time.


End file.
